It's been reported for nearly a week now that IGN says the Enterprise is the ship crashing into the water
We know its not giagantiprise because the engines ! pylons and general shape are different so by deduction it must be the original (April's) enterprise

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Just because it's reported, doesn't mean it's an accurate report.

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Whatever ship we see crashing into the water and buildings is NOT Kirk's Enterprise. The lower hull has a recessed deflector dish while Kirk's ship has an exposed dish. And it seems highly unlikely there'd be two ships named Enterprise in the movie.

My current crazy theory: This other ship looks little bit like the Enterprise-E, especially the nacelles and secondary hull. What if that's because it's the result of Old Spock teaching Starfleet all about future Treknology? It's the only reason I can think of that would explain Starfleet's "newest flagship" Enterprise being surpassed by a bigger badder ship in less than one year.

It's been reported for nearly a week now that IGN says the Enterprise is the ship crashing into the water
We know its not giagantiprise because the engines ! pylons and general shape are different so by deduction it must be the original (April's) enterprise

Click to expand...

Just because it's reported, doesn't mean it's an accurate report.

Click to expand...

Whatever ship we see crashing into the water and buildings is NOT Kirk's Enterprise. The lower hull has a recessed deflector dish while Kirk's ship has an exposed dish. And it seems highly unlikely there'd be two ships named Enterprise in the movie.

Click to expand...

See, the fact that the second ship looks so similar to the heroes' Enterprise implies heavily to me that it is another ship named Enterprise. I think if it was another ship they would have gone out of their way to make sure it was very distinguishable from the Enterprise (for example, the Reliant was designed so that it was very obvious that it wasn't the Enterprise). I think the similarity means something.

The images from the trailer still makes it a complete mindpuzzle. If it was the old Enterprise, surely it would look more like the TOS design or atleast have design cues from the Kelvin.

The nacelles look Post ST:First-contact 24th century to me.

I take the safe bet that it is just another ship in the fleet that gets red-shirted, one that initially fools the audience it is the enterprise to stimulate anticipation of the hero ship taking a dive.

It is interesting that they would pick a design so close to the Enterprise. In other movies and series they have usually avoided that shape so the hero ship would remain unique. An earlier Enterprise might be a plausible idea.

David Messina frankly didn't seem to be trying too hard when it came to drawing starships, as seen in a pic of Kirk's Enterprise from the same angle as the first pic of April's above. You'd be hard pressed to discern the difference, or indeed much resemblance to the onscreen starship at all:

My current crazy theory: This other ship looks little bit like the Enterprise-E, especially the nacelles and secondary hull. What if that's because it's the result of Old Spock teaching Starfleet all about future Treknology? It's the only reason I can think of that would explain Starfleet's "newest flagship" Enterprise being surpassed by a bigger badder ship in less than one year.

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What makes you think it surpasses the current Enterprise, or that its a bigger badder ship?

I remember a few years ago hearing JJ Abrams talk about how he wanted the ship Nero destroys in the first scenes of Trek09 to be the classic Enterprise, and closer to the TOS Jeffries design... He eventually went with the Kelvin, but I assume it was meant to be symbolic of classic Trek being overwritten by the NuTrek timeline as Nero enters the fray and causes all that temporal havoc.

So the idea of there being an older Enterprise floating around could be plausible, and in JJ's mind for some time.

My current crazy theory: This other ship looks little bit like the Enterprise-E, especially the nacelles and secondary hull. What if that's because it's the result of Old Spock teaching Starfleet all about future Treknology? It's the only reason I can think of that would explain Starfleet's "newest flagship" Enterprise being surpassed by a bigger badder ship in less than one year.

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What makes you think it surpasses the current Enterprise, or that its a bigger badder ship?

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Nothing really. I would prefer this other ship to be a contemporary of the Enterprise with roughly equal ability. It was just an idea that popped into my head.

I remember a few years ago hearing JJ Abrams talk about how he wanted the ship Nero destroys in the first scenes of Trek09 to be the classic Enterprise, and closer to the TOS Jeffries design... He eventually went with the Kelvin, but I assume it was meant to be symbolic of classic Trek being overwritten by the NuTrek timeline as Nero enters the fray and causes all that temporal havoc.

So the idea of there being an older Enterprise floating around could be plausible, and in JJ's mind for some time.

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What sold it for me with Trek09 was that the first shots of the Kelvin really gave me the impression that this could be a real spaceship operating out there and how advanced it must be to do this.

Then you see the shot with both the Narada and Kelvin in the frame and the Kelvin could look exactly like a TOS ship. You just have to squint a little to see it.

For arguments sake. What Starship (not including classes that became Enterprise) have a saucer, a secondary hull, raised nacelles and was seen clearly onscreen? I can think of kitbashes but none of those were seen clearly.

For arguments sake. What Starship (not including classes that became Enterprise) have a saucer, a secondary hull, raised nacelles and was seen clearly onscreen? I can think of kitbashes but none of those were seen clearly.

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Exactly. The only times there have been two starships that share the saucer/lower secondary hull/raised nacelles pattern were in the TOS movies with the Excelsior and the Enterprise (and again in TNG with the Enterprise-B and Enterprise-D) but the Excelsior class was very obviously different looking.

Either we're mistaken in thinking that there is a second ship, or that second ship is extremely similar looking to (but not quite exactly the same as) the JJ Enterprise, and the only way I can see the movie producers including a ship that is so similar is if it is another Enterprise.